Students are continuously engaged in environmental education activities and lessons from grades three through seven, including field trips to two Urban Wildlife Refuge sites, Sweetwater Marsh and South San Diego Bay. This provides environmental benefits to not only one but two highly impaired Southern California watersheds; the Otay River Watershed and the Sweetwater River Watershed.
Ocean Connectors participants are from National City, California, a low-income industrial community along San Diego Bay. National City is afflicted by many issues including high poverty, deficient access to parks and recreation, and elevated rates of air and water pollution (it ranks among the worst 20% of all counties in the U.S. for water releases and water pollution). The impact of these disparities is evident in school and later in life. By the fourth grade, children growing up in low-income communities are an average of three grade levels behind their peers